Nightmares
by c0reja
Summary: "Isshin instantly woke up from the painful screaming down the hall." Yeah, I'm not really good at summaries so you only get the first sentence. Rated T just to be sure. Just this one thing. This Fanfiction deals with Ichigo, the past events and what he's afraid of. Set after Aizen's defeat. I can't really categorize the story...I family and hurt/comfort might fit the best...


_I was inspired to write this when I read another fanfiction with a situation quite similar to this though it had a different focus. Unfortunately I can't find it anymore but I'll put a link in here as soon as I do. I'm not natively speaking English and I'm also not very experienced in writing either, so please don't be too harsh. Hope you like it anyway. Tell me what you think and if I should continue._

Isshin instantly woke up from the painful screaming down the hall. 'Something horrible must have happened' the black haired man thought to himself. It takes a lot to make Ichigo scream like that. He jumped up from his bed and quickly ran to his son's room preparing for everything. But what he eventually saw was unexpected – his son was peacefully sleeping in his bed. Was he starting to hear things? The room seemed completely normal so there was no reason for Ichigo to scream like that. So maybe it really was just his own imagination or many he had a nightmare but couldn't remember it as a dream and mixed it up with reality. 'Well, then there's nothing to do for me here. Time to get back to bed.' Isshin thought as he made his way out of his son's room back to his own.

As the rest of the night was quiet as usual he almost completely forgot last night's incident. But another unusual thing occured the next morning as one particular person was absent at the breakfast table. "Have you seen Ichigo?" The tall Shinigami looked unusually worried in Karin's eyes. "Um, he was still asleep when I crossed his room" "Nii-san said there is a teachers' conference this morning so his class starts two hours later. Why do you ask, is something wrong?" Yuzu added. As their dad replied it was nothing they knew he lied but obviously didn't want to talk about it so the two girls didn't ask any further questions. Maybe the two had a fight and now dad was feeling guilty or something. Isshin sighed "Guess, I gotta go to work now. Have a nice day. He forced a smile as he sat up. He couldn't get rid of this strange feeling like something was wrong. The former Shinigami Captain packed his stuff and was about to leave when he heard screaming from upstairs. "It's just like last night" Without thinking twice about it he dropped his stuff and ran upstairs towards Ichigo's room, Yuzu and Karin hot on his heels. After another two screams it was silent again and as he threw open the door all he could find was his son sleeping in his bed. This couldn't just have been his imagination since his daughters must have heard it, too. Isshin let out another sigh. What the hell was going on? He wanted to go to his son but hesitated. Moving his own feet suddenly became more difficult. And he didn't even really know why.

"Hm, why is Nii-san having a nightmare, that's unlike him." Yuzu broke the silence. With Karin quickly following her. "Well who wouldn't after what he went through. You might have not been able to see it but I did. I saw what he did, what he fought. Things like that just leave some mental scars:" Yuzu was a bit shocked that Ichigo having nightmares didn't seem to concern her sister. "Should we wake him?" "He seems to be fine now so just leave him be. He's going to get up in two hours or so anyway. So he probably stayed up a little longer than usual yesterday." She did it again. Like she didn't care – or at least she isn't showing it. She took a quick look on her watch when she realized how late it already was. "Gotta hurry now, or we'll be late for school, Karin."

A few minutes later both the girls and Isshin we're out of the house, though Isshin wasn't exactly able to concentrate because of his son's screams. They were still ringing in his ears without any end in sight. This was going to be a long day.

Ichigo's POV

Multiple events were spinning in the carrot haired boy's head. People he needed to save. They were leaving him over and over again. He wasn't able to save them. He wasn't able to save _anyone. _He was useless. He was scum. He was... Why was he so weak? He should have been stronger. Rukia died because of _him_. Orihime died because of _him_. Chad, Uryu, Renji..they died of _him_. Karakura Town, the Shinigami and his family – he let all of them die. Just like when his mother died. And he couldn't even blame anyone else. He couldn't blame Aizen. It was his job to protect everyone. Now they are gone. Now he's all alone. He doesn't deserve to be near anyone. He would just end up hurting everyone. This could never happen again.

Ichigo felt like he was falling apart. As he slowly fell to his knees he saw people appearing around him. They were building a circle and calling him names. All of them were pointing with their fingers at him and looked like they were looking at an animal or monster. "I didn't want them to died!" He covered his ears in an attempt to block away their talking. He really tried saving them. He didn't do this intentionally.

Ichigo began screaming and just when he was at his breaking point he heard a soft voice calling out for him and everything was gone. The oppressing atmosphere was suddenly broken. When the felt his whole body ache Ichigo realized he was awake. Unlike his expectation he was alone in his room though he heard someone walking upstairs. The Substitute Shinigami wanted to get up but failed miserably. In one not exactly smooth movement he fell to ground hitting his left elbow on the night stand in the process. Standing up or just getting to bed again seemed like the hardest task on earth at this moment. His limbs were far to heavy and on top of that the whole room was spinning, making it hard for Ichigo to even find his bed. How could his room dare to turn into a looping roller coaster at a time like this. It's not like this task wasn't hard enough already.


End file.
